The government used its majority Tuesday to deny Alberta’s Child and Youth Advocate $275,000 needed to support the office’s expanded investigative role. It did, however, approve reinstating more than $500,000 to the office of the auditor general. MLAs on the all-party committee on legislative offices heard the budget requests from both the child and youth […]

Health care groups representing doctors, nurses and pharmacists say an auditor general's report on chronic disease is a call to action to work together on the issue, but questions remain about who should lead the charge.

The NDP made Legal Aid an election issue Friday, calling on the provincial Tory government to boost funding to the cash-strapped non-profit service. Stephanie McLean, the NDP candidate in the upcoming Calgary-Elbow byelection, and NDP MLA Rachel Notley demanded Premier Jim Prentice ensure funding is in place ahead of next week’s meeting between federal and provincial justice ministers in Calgary.

Two years after a fire at a Calgary data centre disrupted services at the province’s hospitals, registries and state-owned bank for days, Alberta’s financial watchdog says the government is still not ready should another information technology disaster strike.

Alberta’s auditor general has released a critical report on the highly-touted joint provincial-federal oilsands monitoring program and also criticized the province’s failure to implement adequate care programs in long-term care facilities. The 263-page October report, released Tuesday, slams the monitoring of cumulative effects of oilsands activity, noting the initial report of monitoring activities was late, inaccurate and incomplete.

Tory MLAs who flew with former premier Alison Redford on government flights for partisan purposes offered a multitude of explanations on Friday — with some apologizing, others claiming innocence and at least one caucus member saying Alberta’s auditor general got it wrong. The responses came the same day the official Opposition demanded a public inquiry into “rampant misuse and abuse of tax dollars” in the former premier’s office.

Alison Redford enlisted government planes for personal and PC party use during her 29 months in the premier’s office and the money she has repaid doesn’t cover the cost of the flights, says Alberta’s auditor general.

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation says the latest controversy surrounding former premier Alison Redford’s use of government airplanes shows why Albertans need the ability to fire their MLAs. On Friday, the CTF launched a petition campaign to push the government to bring in MLA recall legislation.

Two days after Alberta’s auditor general scolded the government over mishandling high-risk commercial vehicle incident files, a large rogue tire from a semi-truck barrelled through several yards in a northeast Calgary neighbourhood. And while Transportation Minister Wayne Drysdale said the incident was unfortunate and would be investigated, he defended the province’s oversight of commercial vehicle safety.

Alberta’s auditor general takes another swing at Finance Minister Doug Horner’s presentation of the budget and criticizes the PC government’s oversight of contracted surgeries in his July report. In the report released Tuesday, Merwan Saher said the budget documents Horner released last month at the end of the last fiscal year contain information that Albertans should have been told at the beginning of the year when the budget was first presented in the legislature.

While flood waters surged through southern Alberta a year ago, public money flowed like the province’s roaring rivers as the Progressive Conservative government grappled with a disaster of unprecedented magnitude. But critics say the flood blurred the lines around spending, raising questions over whether due diligence and accountability were also washed away as the government signed up companies to deliver services in the aftermath of the deluge.